Pompey in administration

The process of Portsmouth going into administration has already begun and will be completed in the High Court on Friday morning.

Balram Chainrai, Pompey owner, held talks Thursday evening with some interested groups, but a takeover failed. The club has £70million in debts.

This is the first Premier League club to ever go into administration. They have a nine point penalty which will leave them on just seven points, 16 behind.

The process of cutting costs to try to keep the club viable will be done by the administrator, Andrew Andronikou, of Insolvency Experts UHY Hacker Young. It is expected there will be a major sell-off of players.

Portsmouth manager, Avram Grant, who became the club’s manager in November, said he was “very sad” and “very angry” at the situation. He also stated he had been “more or less” told the club would go into administration and relayed that his experience at Pompey had been one of constant frustration.

He reported to Sky Sports News: “I feel very sad, very angry, but I want to understand more (about) the situation before I tell you my opinion. Of course, you can imagine. We did a football job here. Every step we couldn’t do our job. Now I’m very sad for me of course and for everybody.”